North Jersey and Rockland spelling bee crowns a winner

Orthology rules! And etymology? That's the big weapon for expert student spellers at this year's North Jersey and Rockland County Spelling Bee.

Marko Georgiev / Staff Photographer

Sanjana Malla, a student at Fieldstone Middle School in Thiells, N.Y., with her trophy after winning the spelling bee on Tuesday.

Forty two students competed in the finals as the 77th annual bee got under way Tuesday night at the Bergen Community College's Moses Technology Center in Paramus.

The winner, Sanjana Malla, 13, a student at Fieldstone Middle School in Thiells, Rockland County, will go to the national championship.

She will be joined by the winner of another round of finals Wednesday night featuring students from Bergen and Morris counties.

This round featured students from Essex, Passaic and Rockland counties.

Sanjana breezed through words like capitulation, flotilla, nemesis and finally fleeciness before nailing the first-place spot and trophy with collision.

Joining her in the very last round of the night’s competition was her brother, Scavanth, 9, who succeeded at words like incorruptible, succotash, and serendipity before getting milksop wrong.

Sanjana said she practices four to five hours a day spelling words and being tested by her father. And her brother said he spends the same amount of time.

“Sometimes we test each other,” Sanjana said.

The competitors went for a total of seven rounds before Sanjana emerged victorious. “This is as much a competitive event as you’ll ever see in sports,” said one of the judges, Miguel de la Carrera, who in real life is a judge in New Jersey’s Superior Court.

The spelling bee is sponsored by The Record and the Herald News.

Some of the student spellers were stymied by words like saffron, kabuki, androcentric, nebbish, and gazpacho.

The crowd of parents and friends gasped audibly when a third grader, Liam Robins of Gold Och Academy in West Orange, didn’t hesitate before confidently spelling juggernaut.

Of the students who started, 19 were knocked out in the first round.

Toward the end of the competition the words became more difficult with challenges like langlauf (a type of cross-country skiing), douane (derived from a French word for customs), and wedel (a skiing term).

After Wednesday’s competition, the two winners will go to Washington in June.

Other sponsors of the North Jersey event are Bergen Community College, Public Service Electric and Gas, the applicance retailer PC Richard and Sons, the architectural firm LAN Associates, Providence Bank, Merriam-Webster and Apex Copy Center.

North Jersey and Rockland spelling bee crowns a winner

Sanjana Malla, a student at Fieldstone Middle School in Thiells, N.Y., with her trophy after winning the spelling bee on Tuesday.

By JIM NORMAN

STAFF WRITER |

The Record

Orthology rules! And etymology? That's the big weapon for expert student spellers at this year's North Jersey and Rockland County Spelling Bee.

Forty two students competed in the finals as the 77th annual bee got under way Tuesday night at the Bergen Community College's Moses Technology Center in Paramus.

The winner, Sanjana Malla, 13, a student at Fieldstone Middle School in Thiells, Rockland County, will go to the national championship.

She will be joined by the winner of another round of finals Wednesday night featuring students from Bergen and Morris counties.

This round featured students from Essex, Passaic and Rockland counties.

Sanjana breezed through words like capitulation, flotilla, nemesis and finally fleeciness before nailing the first-place spot and trophy with collision.

Joining her in the very last round of the night’s competition was her brother, Scavanth, 9, who succeeded at words like incorruptible, succotash, and serendipity before getting milksop wrong.

Sanjana said she practices four to five hours a day spelling words and being tested by her father. And her brother said he spends the same amount of time.

“Sometimes we test each other,” Sanjana said.

The competitors went for a total of seven rounds before Sanjana emerged victorious. “This is as much a competitive event as you’ll ever see in sports,” said one of the judges, Miguel de la Carrera, who in real life is a judge in New Jersey’s Superior Court.

The spelling bee is sponsored by The Record and the Herald News.

Some of the student spellers were stymied by words like saffron, kabuki, androcentric, nebbish, and gazpacho.

The crowd of parents and friends gasped audibly when a third grader, Liam Robins of Gold Och Academy in West Orange, didn’t hesitate before confidently spelling juggernaut.

Of the students who started, 19 were knocked out in the first round.

Toward the end of the competition the words became more difficult with challenges like langlauf (a type of cross-country skiing), douane (derived from a French word for customs), and wedel (a skiing term).

After Wednesday’s competition, the two winners will go to Washington in June.

Other sponsors of the North Jersey event are Bergen Community College, Public Service Electric and Gas, the applicance retailer PC Richard and Sons, the architectural firm LAN Associates, Providence Bank, Merriam-Webster and Apex Copy Center.